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Valery Giscard d'Estaing

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World Leader

The Resume

    (February 2, 1926-December 2, 2020)
    Born in Koblenz, Germany
    Minister of Economics and Finance (1962-66,1969-74)
    President of France (1974-81)
    Member of the European Parliament (1989-93)

Why he might be annoying:

    His full name was the unwieldy Valery Marie Rene Georges Giscard d'Estaing.
    He implemented unpopular austerity budgets to fight against deficits and inflation.
    Revelations that he went on hunting trips with Jean-Bedel Bokassa and received gifts of diamonds from the dictator contributed to his defeat in his reelection campaign.
    When he left the presidential residence for the last time, the crowd outside booed and spat at him.
    He was one of the main drafters of a proposed European constitution that was rejected by French voters (2005).
    He maintained rooms at a country inn for his affairs with young actresses, such as Sylvia Kristel.
    He was reportedly returning from one of his mistresses when he crashed a Ferrari borrowed from Roger Vadim into a milk truck (1974).
    He wrote a romance novel, 'The President and the Princess' (2009), that inspired speculation that he had based the book on a real-life affair with Princess Diana.
    A German journalist accused him of groping her buttocks during a 2018 interview.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He joined the Resistance and the Free French forces during World War II, earning the Croix de Guerre.
    As finance minister, he impressed Parliament by delivering his first budget speech without notes.
    His administration lowered the voting age to 18.
    He loosened government controls over state-financed radio and television.
    He organized the first Group of Six summit, inviting the leaders of the US, Britain, West Germany, Italy, and Japan to France (1975).
    He said that he sold the diamonds he received from Bokassa and donated the money to the Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations in the Central African Republic.
    His account was confirmed by the weekly magazine Le Point.
    He was the first sponsor of the Musée d'Orsay, the Paris museum dedicated to 19th-century art.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 6 Votes: 83.33% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 80 Votes: 42.50% Annoying